1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a highway safety net for use in connection with shock absorbing devices. The highway safety net has particular utility in connection with self supporting highway barricade net.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Highway safety nets are desirable for catching and stopping out of control vehicles at grass highway medians.
The use of shock absorbing devices is known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,465,936 to Schultz discloses an emergency arresting device for moving objects that comprises a pair of supports and a plurality of horizontal plies attached to the supports. The horizontal plies being constructed of a synthetic plastic material susceptible of at least 100% permanent elongation. However, the Schultz ""936 patent does not have a net connected to spaced posts wherein a heavy cable is connected to the net and has stabilizer bars connecting the cable to the spaced posts.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,500 to Carlsson discloses an arresting gear for aircraft and other vehicles that comprises a net having upper and lower cables. The upper cable consists of a plurality of separate lines or strands. Vertical lines connect the upper and lower cables. Each of the vertical lines is connected at one end to a single one of the strands of the upper cable. However, the Carlsson ""500 patent does not have a net connected to spaced posts wherein a heavy cable is connected to the net and has stabilizer bars connecting the cable to the spaced posts.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,608 to Charno, et al. discloses a barricade net arresting system that is designed to raise and lower a cross-runway barricade member such as a textile net adapted to be engaged by a distressed aircraft which would otherwise over run the safe limits of the runway. A pair of stanchions at opposite sides of the runway support the net. Each stanchion is operated by a hydraulic system synchronized by a unified control. A cylinder is actuated by the hydraulic fluid to raise or lower each stanchion in unison. A feature of each hydraulic system includes an automatic accumulator and recharge. However, the Charno, et al. ""608 patent does not have a net connected to spaced posts wherein a heavy cable is connected to the net and has stabilizer bars connecting the cable to the spaced posts.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a highway safety net that allows self supporting highway barricade net. The Schultz ""936, Carlsson ""500 and Charno, et al. ""608 patents make no provision for a net connected to spaced posts wherein a heavy cable is connected to the net and has stabilizer bars connecting the cable to the spaced posts.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved highway safety net which can be used for self supporting highway barricade net. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the highway safety net according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of self supporting highway barricade net.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of shock absorbing devices now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved highway safety net, and overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved highway safety net and method which has all the advantages of the prior art mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a highway safety net which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention essentially comprises netting connected to a lower cable. A first post top is connected to the netting for supporting the netting. A second post top is connected to the first post top. A first stabilizer bar is connected to the lower cable. The first stabilizer bar is connected adjacent to the first post bottom. A second stabilizer bar is connected to the lower cable. The second stabilizer bar is connected adjacent to the second post bottom.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
The invention may also include a catch, a first stabilizer hook, a second stabilizer hook, a first cement footing, a second cement footing and cable weights. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of descriptions and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved highway safety net that has all of the advantages of the prior art shock absorbing devices and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved highway safety net that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved highway safety net that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such highway safety net economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new highway safety net that provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
Lastly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide a highway safety net for self supporting highway barricade net.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.